hypnotist collector

Author: El Coleccionista Hipnótico

Manu Chao is a fascinating personality in the spanish music world. He was born in Paris in 1961 from a family of Spanish immigrants, refugees of the Spanish Civil War. Started his career as a street musician, playing in the underground. He even joined some bands such as Hot Pants and Los Carayos while still being very young. At a certain point, besides his brother Antoine and a few friends of him, he founded the Hip Hop band, Mano Negra. They finally obtained a noticeable success, especially when they signed with Virgin Records to make the album called “Puta’s Fever” which included their widely recognized global hit, “King Kong Five.”

After quite different vicissitudes, once he already left the band, he publishes his second solo album, “Próxima Estación, Esperanza (Next Stop, Hopeness)” which gains him a lot of prestige. The album includes excellent songs, such as “Mr. Bobby,” dedicated to Bob Marley, “Me Gustas Tú” or the one I’m sharing here, which is a favorite of mine, “Mi Vida.” This is a live version at The Henry Rollins Show:

My life’s love, small bright flame without a candle
Blood from my bleeding wound
Don’t make me suffer anymore
My life’s love, lost bullet
on Main Street (1)*,
Small puddle of suburban neighborhood
Don’t want you to walk away
I don’t want you to walk away from me
More and more each day

My life’s love, small muddy water’s puddle (2)*
Soap bubble (3)*
My last refuge,
My last illusion
I don’t want you to walk away
More and more each day

Ioeeeeeeh uooooh uooooh ioeeeeeh (“come up my people!”)

My life’s love, small bright flame without a candle
Blood from my bleeding wound
Don’t make me suffer anymore
My life’s love, lost bullet
on Main Street (1)*,
Small puddle of suburban neighborhood.

Ioeeeeeeh uooooh uooooh ioeeeeeh [bis]

(*) Translator notes:

(1) he says she’s a lost soul making the streets in Gran Via de Madrid.

(2) he says she’s like a small puddle of muddy water.

(3) I guess he means she’s as soft and fragil as a bubble, beautiful and unstable, something you may love but can not touch, because it becomes instantly broken or lost.

Here you can find an acoustic version of the same song; much slower than the TV show version shown above. I love the way he does it here, so slow, so heartbreaking:

The song talks about broken dreams; the kind of loss one can feel when the last hour comes. It is for me about something you know you are missing that you will never have a chance to retrieve anymore.

I also want to share another acoustic version of this song, performed live in Radio Nikosia, Barcelona, on March 13, 2013. Quite intimate:

Still oddly stirring the album version, in which we can listen to a repetitive voiceover telling “Aqui no pegamos a los ojos (We don’t hit to the eyes here).” This is doubtlessly evocative, suggesting something bigger, as if the character were facing an oppressive situation, torture or something similar, while reminding the one he loves:

A song about missing that lost soul that you thought was your twin. It might have nothing to do with it, but for some reason it reminds me of a Bob Dylan line that says: “I been in trouble ever since I set my suitcase down;” Maybe because it makes reference to that moment in life in which one realizes that you can not go ahead with a suitcase full of broken dreams.

The other day, on July 7th, an acrobat died after plunging 100ft to his death in front of the crowd at MAD COOL music festival in Madrid, Spain.

The frightening accident happened just few minutes before headliners Green Day were due to come on stage. The organizers, however, chose to go on with the show and not suspend the event. A statement later issued by Mad Cool Festival organizers alleged security reasons to make such an arguable decision. This is the NOTE from the organization:

“Mad Cool Festival regrets the terrible accident that the aerial dancer suffered during the second day of the festival.
For security reasons, the festival decided to continue with its programming.
We send our most sincere condolences to all his family.
Tomorrow Saturday 8, during the festival, we will render a heartfelt tribute to the artist.”

Green Day

The band has also been largely criticized for performing after the tragic incident. The leader of the band, Billy Joe Armstrong, declared they didn’t know what have happened before they began playing. A tweet from the band’s official account later implied the same. This is what can be read there:

8 Jul

Green Day ✔ @GreenDay We just got off stage at Mad Cool Festival to disturbing news. A very brave artist named Pedro lost his life tonight in a tragic accident *Follow*

So they fully apologized for playing shortly after the horrific death of the acrobat, Pedro Aunion Monroy; and stated they were completely ignorant of the facts until after their performance, when they left the stage.

Green Day defends performance following acrobat’s death at Madrid music festival:

Green Day, as many would know, is an excellent punk rock band of deserved cult. They were always faithful to their own style and artistic commitment, and I always respected them for what they do. Not in vain did they worthily cover the immortal song by Bob Dylan, Like A Rolling Stone:

Here you can hear and watch them performing live. This is their remarkable hit, “Holiday,” sadly bathed in pain now by the last week events in Madrid Mad Cool Festival:

Holiday

Hear the sound of the falling rain
Coming down like an Armageddon flame (hey!)
A shame
The ones who died without a name
Hear the dogs howlin’ out of key
To a hymn called faith and misery (hey!)
And bleed, the company lost the war today
I beg to dream and differ from the hollow lies
This is the dawning of the rest of our lives
On holiday

Hear the drum pounding out of time
Another protester has crossed the line (hey!)
To find, the money’s on the other side
Can I get another Amen (Amen!)
There’s a flag wrapped around a score of men (hey!)
A gag, A plastic bag on a monument
I beg to dream and differ from the hollow lies
This is the dawning of the rest of our lives
On holiday

“The representative from California has the floor”
Sieg Heil to the president gasman
Bombs away is your punishment
Pulverize the Eiffel towers
Who criticize your government
Bang bang goes the broken glass and
Kill all the fags that don’t agree
Trials by fire setting fire
Is not a way that’s meant for me
Just cause
Just cause
Because we’re outlaws yeah!

I beg to dream and differ from the hollow lies
This is the dawning of the rest of our lives
I beg to dream and differ from the hollow lies
This is the dawning of the rest of our lives
This is our lives on Holiday

Today they celebrated Independence Day in the USA, and that’s a good thing, so I wish a happy 4th of July to everyone of my American friends and followers. Nevertheless, sadly for me, it is the 4th Anniversary of one of my best friends passing away. In fact I should say, most likely the best one ever. My stirring feeling here, regarding such a loss, is comparable to the one the performer could feel while singing this song that I was wishing I could be bringing up to you now. I believe it is one of the most stirring performances I have ever seen, so I wanted to share it here with you all in memory of my beloved friend, who will always be missed.

The show was live recorded and broadcast for MTV in Sony Music studios in New York, on November 18th 1993. Kurt Cobain destilling all the life that was inside of him. That happened not even five months before they found him dead at his home in Seattle, three days after his suicide. Apparently he took his life shooting himself in the head. The show was released as a live album later in 1994, after his death in early April.

The way Kurt Cobain performed this show was certainly a premonition of what would happen in a few months.

He was probably feeling down, unable to overcome his loss. The grief is painfuly evident in the version of “Pennyroyal Tea” that I wanted to post here. Pitifully the MTV Unplugged version was not available anymore in YouTube due to copyright issues, so I thought I had to replace it by another one called “Where Did You Sleep Last Night.” But I could find it in Vimeo at last. There was doubtlessly a heartbreaking grief and an emotional breakdown, specially in “Pennyroyal Tea;” But one can still feel the sorrow in this other performance:

He most likely felt like he had lost everything, might be his faith in the human kind or maybe in himself. But, as Bob Dylan wrote, “when you think you have lost everything, you’ll find that you can always lose a little more.” And it’s true, he found it, unfortunately, and he lost his life.

You come from far away
With pictures in your eyes
Of coffeeshops and morning streets
In the blue and silent sunrise
But night is the cathedral
Where we recognized the sign
We strangers know each other now
As part of the whole design

Refrain: Oh, hold me like a baby
That will not fall asleep
Curl me up inside you
And let me hear you through the heat
Ohh ohh ohh ohhhh ohhh ohhh oh oh

You are the jester of this courtyard
With a smile like a girl’s
Distracted by the women
With the dimples and the curls
By the pretty and the mischievous
By the timid and the blessed
By the blowing skirts of ladies
Who promise to gather you to their breast

Oh, hold me like a baby… (Refrain)

You have hands of raining water
And that earring in your ear
The wisdom on your face
Denies the number of your years
With the fingers of the potter
And the laughing tale of the fool
The arranger of disorder
With your strange and simple rules
Yes now I’ve met me another spinner
Of strange and gauzy threads
With a long and slender body
And a bump upon the head

Oh, hold me like a baby… (Refrain)

With a long and slender body
And the sweetest softest hands
And we’ll blow away forever soon
And go on to different lands
And please do not ever look for me
But with me you will stay
And you will hear yourself in song
Blowing by one day,

Looking for something else I just found this NPR Music Tiny Desk concert by Suzanne Vega, which I believe it’s worth watching and listening to:

I think it was in 1987 that I first discovered Suzanne Vega while listening to the radio at home, as I was working in Barcelona. I remember it was a great song from her first album, “Suzanne Vega” (1985) LP, that called my attention and made such a huge impact on me. The song was called “Straight Lines.” Next day I went to a vinyl records store (I guess the mythical Castello Records on Tallers Street) to buy the LP where “Straight Lines” was included.

But I just couldn’t find it. I bought her second album instead, including her greatest hit “Luka,” which was usually blasting the waves on the radio at the time. I had to wait until next time I went back to Madrid to visit Discoplay and get her first released album “Suzanne Vega” at last. That’s how I managed to add the LP including “Straight Lines” to my own collection.

However, the greatest song of hers in my opinion, the one I always loved the most, was one called “Gypsy” from his second album “Solitude Standing,” which I bought in first place. This is a beautiful song about a first summer romance, someone she knew when she was 18, who had to go back to Liverpool while she had to go home to New York City. It was released as a single in 1986 ahead of her second album “Solitude Standing,” in which it was included.

Gypsy

You come from far away
With pictures in your eyes
Of coffeeshops and morning streets
In the blue and silent sunrise
But night is the cathedral
Where we recognized the sign
We strangers know each other now
As part of the whole design

Refrain: Oh, hold me like a baby
That will not fall asleep
Curl me up inside you
And let me hear you through the heat

You are the jester of this courtyard
With a smile like a girl’s
Distracted by the women
With the dimples and the curls
By the pretty and the mischievous
By the timid and the blessed
By the blowing skirts of ladies
Who promise to gather you to their breast

Oh, hold me like a baby… (Refrain)

You have hands of raining water
And that earring in your ear
The wisdom on your face
Denies the number of your years
With the fingers of the potter
And the laughing tale of the fool
The arranger of disorder
With your strange and simple rules
Yes now I’ve met me another spinner
Of strange and gauzy threads
With a long and slender body
And a bump upon the head

Oh, hold me like a baby… (Refrain)

With a long and slender body
And the sweetest softest hands
And we’ll blow away forever soon
And go on to different lands
And please do not ever look for me
But with me you will stay
And you will hear yourself in song
Blowing by one day,

This time we are going to make a contest as I will provide another version of the same song, a live version performed at the Songwriters Circle accompained by the acclaimed British guitarist Richard Thompson, who played with Bob Dylan in Seville, Spain at the Guitar Legends Festival in 1991. You will have to choose the version you like the most between these two, the official release on the video above and the one below performed at the Songwriter’s Circle. I will send a Cd-R with a live recording of hers, or a DVD, to the winner of the contest among those of you whose choice becomes the most voted of both versions.

The procedure for the contest will be as follows: Leave a comment saying that you will take part in the contest, then contact me in a private message and include your vote; # 1 for the official video version and # 2 for the Songwriters Circle version. Remember that your choice should remain unknown to the rest, except for myself, until the game is over. I will assign numbers to each one of the participants whose choice was the most voted version, according to the order in which their comments were listed on my blog. The winner will be the one whose number matches a particular number obtained using a verifiable system of pregenerated randomization through a random sequence generator at random.org site on the date my post reaches 45 viewers. Let’s see how it works. Here comes the Songwriter’s Circle version:

I was lucky to see her once live in Bergen, Norway, as she was the supporting act to the Dylan concert I attended there in 2011. She was brilliant. Of course she did “Gypsy,” in a stirring performance. A very dignified opening act for the old troubadour who offered a splendid concert in which the sun enlightened the stage at dusk before sinking beyond the horizon after a rainy afternoon.

Snow can wait I forgot my mittens
Wipe my nose get my new boots on
I get a little warm in my heart when I think of winter
I put my hands in my father’s glove
I run off where the drifts get deeper

Sleeping Beauty it drips me with a frown
I hear a voice you must learn to stand up
For yourself cause I can’t always be around

He says, when you gonna make up your mind
When you gonna love you as much as I do
When you gonna make up your mind
‘Cause things are gonna change so fast
All the white horses are still in bed
I tell you that I’ll always want you near
You say that things change my dear

Boys get discovered as winter melts
Flowers come pleading for the sun
Years go by and I’m here still waiting
Withering where some snowman was
Mirror mirror where’s the crystal palace
But I only can see myself
Skating around the truth who I am
But I know dad, the Ice is getting thin
When you gonna make up your mind
When you gonna love you as much as I do
When you gonna make up your mind
‘Cause things are gonna change so fast
All the white horses are still in bed
I tell you that I’ll always want you near
You say that things change my dear

Hair is gray and the fire is underneath
So many dreams on the shelf
You say I wanted you to be proud of me
I always wanted that myself

When you gonna make up your mind
When you gonna love you as much as I do
When you gonna make up your mind
‘Cause things are gonna change so fast
All the white horses have gone ahead
I tell you that I’ll always want you near
You say that things change my dear

Before winter time is over I’d like to share this amazing performance of a fascinating artist, the one and only Tori Amos. She was unknown to me until 2013 when a friend of mine sent me a link to watch this “Live At Montreaux 91/92” video.

In first place I thought she was the one who became supporting act to Bob Dylan and Merle Haggard shows during the spring tour in 2005, when it was actually Amos Lee, instead. I received back then from a trader of mine a good recording of Dylan’s Foxwoods show in Masantucket, CT. The tape included part of Amos Lee performances and I liked those tracks a lot. Nothing to do with Tori Amos voice, obviously, but you know, I mixed them up because of the coincidence between their first and last names. I was researching to talk about it as I started to think of this article when I realized my mistake, and I must admit I have been confused all of this time since I first listened to this performance I’m sharing here.

Anyway, she’s so unique that I’m still stunned of how could I have mixed her up with anybody else. Just listen to this beautiful song; her awesome delivery with that wonderful piano playing:

Winter

Talk: Mmm… This is my next song… this is… er… for my dad.

Snow can wait I forgot my mittens
Wipe my nose get my new boots on
I get a little warm in my heart when I think of winter
I put my hands in my father’s glove
I run off where the drifts get deeper

Sleeping Beauty it drips me with a frown
I hear a voice you must learn to stand up
For yourself cause I can’t always be around

He says, when you gonna make up your mind
When you gonna love you as much as I do
When you gonna make up your mind
‘Cause things are gonna change so fast
All the white horses are still in bed
I tell you that I’ll always want you near
You say that things change my dear

Boys get discovered as winter melts
Flowers come pleading for the sun
Years go by and I’m here still waiting
Withering where some snowman was
Mirror mirror where’s the crystal palace
But I only can see myself

Skating around the truth who I am
But I know dad, the Ice is getting thin

When you gonna make up your mind
When you gonna love you as much as I do
When you gonna make up your mind
‘Cause things are gonna change so fast
All the white horses are still in bed
I tell you that I’ll always want you near
You say that things change my dear

Hair is gray and the fire is underneath
So many dreams on the shelf
You say I wanted you to be proud of me
I always wanted that myself

When you gonna make up your mind
When you gonna love you as much as I do
When you gonna make up your mind
‘Cause things are gonna change so fast
All the white horses have gone ahead
I tell you that I’ll always want you near
You say that things change my dear

I can’t help but have a deep stirring feeling when I listen to her talk to her father the way she does in this song. It really touches me to the core when she says, “…And never change” just before the end. Her father may be a Methodist priest, but in spite of it I have to agree with Wikipedia description, telling she is considered one of the most relevant avant-garde female artists of the 1990s, for her lyrically opaque yet intensely emotional songs covering a wide range of topics including sexuality, feminism, politics and religion.

It’s cold outside and the day is cloudy. I didn’t leave home yet today and I don’t feel like doing it anyhow. This “Winter” song makes me feel lonely, like withering myself at home where the river flows near the naked park and the empty street where I live. I feel glad, though, that I have this feeling and can some way relate myself to this heartbreaking lyrics. I know, miss Tori Amos, sometimes it is Winter in the heart. It’s hard to realize we have so many dreams on the shelf; find out there are always lies around; to know some things never change. It’s all so sad at times… but it’s just a wonder to find out someone can express this kind of feeling so well. And I feel grateful to you, miss Amos, for writing and singing this song the way you did in Montreux; the way you surely do every time you perform it live. God bless you, Tori Amos.